(Fermat quartic)
The Fermat quartic is \(X = V(x^4 + y^4 + z^4 + w^4) \subseteq \PP^3_\CC\).
\(X\) is smooth: the partial derivatives \(4x^3, 4y^3, 4z^3, 4w^3\) vanish simultaneously only at the origin.
\(X\) is a K3 surface. By adjunction \(\omega_X \cong \OO_X(4 - 4) = \OO_X\), and the sequence \(0 \to \OO_{\PP^3}(-4) \to \OO_{\PP^3} \to \OO_X \to 0\) gives \(H^1(X, \OO_X) = 0\) because \(H^1(\OO_{\PP^3}) = H^2(\OO_{\PP^3}(-4)) = 0\).
Its invariants are \(\chi(\OO_X) = 2\), topological Euler characteristic \(24\) by Noether’s formula with \(K_X^2 = 0\), \(b_2 = 22\) and \(h^{1,1} = 20\).
\(X\) contains exactly \(48\) lines. If \(\zeta^4 = \eta^4 = -1\), the line \(\{x = \zeta y,\ z = \eta w\}\) lies on \(X\), since \(x^4 + y^4 = (\zeta^4 + 1) y^4 = 0\) and likewise for \(z, w\). There are \(16\) such lines for each of the \(3\) ways to split the coordinates into two pairs. Each line \(L\) has \(L^2 = -2\) by adjunction.
The lines span a sublattice of rank \(20\) in \(\operatorname{NS}(X)\), so \(X\) has Picard number \(20\), the maximum for a complex K3 surface.
Dependencies
T-SRFADJThe adjunction formula on a surfaceuses